Mom, this is embarrassing

"Mom - this is embarrassing, but I have to tell you something"
(oh, no!)
"What is it, Macy?"
"The other day, I told Zak that I have a crush on him."
"You did?  Well, what did he say?"
"He said, I don't have a crush on you. And then I said, No, I have a crush on you!"
"Well, what did he have to say about that?"
"He said, Well, then you have to kiss me and give me smooches."
"You didn't smooch him, did you?"
"No!  We can't smooch or hug.  We can't even touch."
"Just a high-five?"
"Yep, just a high-five."

good night. 
I love this stuff.  I hope she'll always tell me these tales.

Baby Buzz-Cut

Something that some of you may not know about me...I love gramma crafts.  I mean, I love everything that seems like I should be 60 to be embracing it.  Sewing, knitting, and scrapbooking.  If I could spend my days being crafty and trying to come up with new ideas to make cute things, I'd be in hog heaven.  But, I can't afford to do that - you know - paying $102398437 for daycare...so, I try to get away and do my crafty stuff every few months, with some of my favorite ladies.  We scrapbook.  I'm making books for all my kids with little notes to them about how much I love them and enjoyed them growing up.  I plan to talk about these days a lot when they're teenagers and think I'm worthless.  It's bound to happen, so I'm preparing.  And, some day I'll be gone and I like the idea of having something I made for them, with my feelings toward them so they'll always have a little piece of me.  Yes, I'm a sap and these books will likely make it into a box in the attic, but maybe get read and looked at every few years.  Anyways, I'm doing it.  I went this particular weekend and received a call from my husband.  He needed to know how to download videos "because I had to see the videos he just took" - 40 minutes later, we had them downloaded.  I pulled them up and saw these videos:
one
two, &
three.
There were mixed emotions at Nerdfest (the name Ken has given our little adventures)
I'm not sure how I felt about it.  Half in disbelief.  A small part of annoyance that he would do that because I'm working on scheduling his 6 month pics and our family pics.  And, a bit happy.  For 6 years, I've been doing all this stuff - taking care of all the "care items" for our kids...and it was kindof cool that he finally got involved.  I'm not sure that this was the way to do it, but I like that he thought he needed a haircut, so he did it.  He also took the ladies to get their hair cut last week.  He made an appointment, took them there, and surprised me.  (we had actually discussed this, but I put the ban on it, due to Amy & Nick's wedding.)  They were going to have flowers in their hair and we were keeping it long!  But, that very next Monday, it was cut.  Usually, we have conversations that are like this.  "We should get the girls' hair cut."
 "Ya?"
"ya."
"Does that mean I should?"
"ya."
But this time, he did it.  It was awesome and awful all at the same time. :)
Here are the ladies before.

And, After...

OK - I'm totally kidding.  These after pics are of them in a wig that Macy found in the basement with the Halloween stuff.  They have cute little bob haircuts and I don't even have a pic of them, but we'll get some on here.  Jorey wasn't such a fan of having this on.
Check out Grady, courtesy of Auntie Kara.

Grady before Buzzing - He wants to be a cowboy!  This outfit courtesy of Kork & Mitz - so awesome.  Uncle Kyle had named him "Spike", due to his hair sticking straight up.


fuzzy-wuzzy was a bear...

 Here's Grady after his buzz-cut.  I think this expression shows how we all feel about it!  Dad now calls him "Butch".  Nope. 




We got another brother. Amy made a good, solid choice.

With two such attractive people, it's hard to not have a beautiful wedding.  So, it was.  We welcomed Nick into the family and made Amy a Hall.  It was a great day, lots of fun, and turned out wonderful.
Here are many pics - we took lots and somehow forgot to get a family photo before we sent the kiddos home with Orange Papa and Gramma.  Dang-it.  The goyles were flower-girls in the wedding and Ken and I were both in it, so we ended up calling on my parents and sister Natalie to help with Grady, Hunter & Payne.  Thanks so much to you all for doing that.  A fun tid-bit.  After the wedding, My parents were driving my minivan with Payne, Macy, Jorey, Grady and Hunter to the reception.  Wow - talk about overwhelming them just a little.  When we got to the reception, my dad was sitting in the tent with Grady on his lap, looking like he smelled a bad fart.  I think it was really that he'd earned a few beers already, but had to drive home, so he was forbidden that beautiful cocktail.  I found my mom chasing the girls around, looking frazzled.  She said, "You didn't tell me we were coming to a lake, with a pool, and a park (the girls' name for a swingset) that they can't play on!"  I owe them a few favors after that day. :)
Congrats to Amy and Nick!

4th of July Fun

Dad and Auntie Kara enjoy the slide, too!

 We took it easy this 4th of July. We decided to stay close to home and have a fire in the neighborhood and then just go to the Eagan Carnival instead of driving all the way to Blooming Prairie and Owatonna as we have in years past. The Eagan carnival was fun, but hot and expensive, but we did get to go on a few rides and it was pretty fun. Then, we went to Auntie Amy's pool after that. How refreshing that was.

Grady and Dad @ the pool

Sisters having fun, together on the Dragon Rollercoaster

Jorey's working on being brave - getting way better.

Macy's lovin' the water.

Hunter enjoys the water with Mom.

Dad won you another stuffed animal, throwing balls SO hard.

Grady gets food...it took a sec to be tasty

Adventures in Babysitting

Amy's bachelorette party was on a weekend that Kyle was out of town.  Thus, leaving Heidi with a decision to go home the night of the party or call in an amateur for babysitting duties.  Nick was summoned and stepped-up to the challenge.  Poor Hunter.  He was in a strange place, with Ken and Nick (and our kids...but that didn't help)  He was so sad all night.  Nick said he would cry and then stop all night for about 4 hours.  Finally, around 12:30, he slept the first time, but he would make sad sounds in his sleep.  :(  So, Nick looked pretty weathered when we arrived back around noon the next day.
First Video of the morning after here
And, the burping form here.  Please note the fake burp.

"We're a-ok!"

Happy 4th Birthday, Jorey. You're my sassy little turkey.

Well, Jorey, we've had quite an adventurous first 4 years and you finally got old enough to get that jumper at your birthday party!  (We got one for Macy for her 4th, so you've been planning this party for 2 years!).
At 4 years old, here are some noteworthy details about you:
-You always want to go first.  Dinner, take a bath, brush teeth, scratch back at bed time (and, you always need multiple smooches and going above your jammies will not do.  You require slow and right on your skin and there's no cutting it short), get dressed, and get in the car - everything!
-You love riding bike.  We get you on your little Dora bike with your helmet on and you just cruise.  You still have training wheels until we get Macy riding without them, but you like to show me how cool you are by standing and pedaling.  You go so fast!  I always have to tell you to stop.
-On that note, you never want to stop.  You always want to be outside, play in the pool, ride bikes, go for a walk, go to the park, etc.  We are constantly on the go because of your persistence...
- And finally, you are a nagger.  You will not stop until you have achieved your goal.  It is persistence and will serve you well later on in life, but sometimes I have to tell you "no more!"  Auntie Natalie says you'll be a lawyer because you just will not accept anything other than what you want.

I love you very much and can't wait to see what the next few years bring.  You're a great little sister and big sister and handle your role as the middle kiddo quite well.  You're our little boom boom!

Here are some photos of the Birthday Girl and her party.

We had all sorts of fun celebrating in Spidey style - jumper, gunny sack races, pinata, and a strange story game that Dad told where he was the monster and you had to run to the play-gym to be safe.  It was pretty crazy.

On your mark!

Let's race!

Go, Go, Go!

Your tiny party people